Test Setup

We used the following hardware to test the overclocking capabilities of this board:

• CPU:INTEL Core 2 Duo E6700
  
• MB: DFI INF P35-T2RL
  
• DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF
  
• VGA: ASUS EAH2600XT DDR4
  
• HD: WD1600AAJS
  
• POWER: Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
  
• Cooler: Thermaltake V1

The system was not installed inside a case, but just lying on the cardboard box for easy access:



At first boot-up you are greeted with the screen for driver setup once you insert the CD:



The E6700 used is quite OC friendly, so let’s find the maximum stable FSB overclock with default voltage, stability was tested with SuperPi 32Mb.


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Reaching an impressive 543Mhz on the FSB! Let’s increase voltage, a small bump on all NB/SB elements and we got this result:


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Stress test with Dual SuperPi 32Mb sessions finished successfully at 555Mhz FSB! Is there more left? A bit of tweaking later running at 560Mhz with memory at 1200Mhz CL5:


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Intel chipset also did a good job in DRAM OC. DDRII 1150, CL5 5-5-18


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Conclusive Thoughts



PRO
Sharp price of approx. $140
Killer look, and good board layout
Plenty of tweaking options in the BIOS, on par with high end products.
FSB overclocking very good as well as DDR2 high speed performance.

CON
Only one x16 PCIe slot
3.3/5/12v read-out low in health monitor
For the overclockers out there, a power/reset button on the board would come in handy.

This brand new “Blood-Iron” model uses a total-red design is really eye-catching. Also, the price around USD$140 or cheaper is nice for entry-level overclockers. The MSI P35-FR is the biggest competitor in this price bracket, it’s always good to see many options for new shoppers, this DFI P35 board does not disappoint.